A desire to influence his undergraduate theatre-makers to embody a positive attitude of lifelong learning has led to a national award for a Charles Sturt University (CSU) lecturer.Dr Gerard (Jerry) Boland, senior lecturer in theatre/media at the School of Communication and Creative Industries in Bathurst, received a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) at a presentation ceremony at Old Parliament House in Canberra on Monday 9 August.
The ALTC citation recognises Dr Boland ‘For innovation and sustained dedication to facilitating challenging yet positive learning environments that enable pre-professional theatre-makers to devise original entertainments for performance amongst popular audiences’. These short comic entertainments appear at pubs throughout Bathurst over several weeks during May and June each year.
Dr Boland says that the approach taken to learning and teaching within the Bachelor of Communication (Theatre/Media) is characterised by a focus on the long-term goal of producing theatre-makers who value the role of lifelong learning when employmed in diverse entertainment, communication, and information industries.
“We seek to motivate our students in two ways; by setting tasks which stimulate their pleasure in thinking critically to solve the problems associated with the creation of original entertainment, and by using their imagination to use theatre as a transforming cultural tool,” Dr Boland said.
“The desire to produce resonant entertainments also motivates them to develop collaborative research, devising, and scriptwriting skills to achieve these purposes.
“Graduates report the devising skills that the course teaches, and the performance challenges embedded within the annual ‘mumming’ project*, have inspired them to recognise and honour invention, originality, and leadership in themselves, and to encourage this in others.
“They also consistently report that they have been influenced to develop leadership skills with group-based problem- solving, especially where these enhance democratic principles within co-operative organisations.”
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